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 Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2021 7:02 pm
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Backdated to mid-February.
“He said he’d be at this park every Saturday at midnight,” Misha said, leading the way to the park in question.
It was a cold night in mid-February. The stars weren’t really visible through the city lights, and only the smallest sliver of moon hung above them. This part of town was almost entirely deserted at this time. Every once in a while, Misha thought he heard a noise — a rustle or a soft scrape — but nothing ever came of it.
He’d made his decision.
The thing about MIsha was, when he made decisions, he tended to act on them pretty quickly.
“But that was also two months ago, so who knows if he’ll actually be here,” Misha continued, rounding a corner and hopping the low, chain-link fence that surrounded the park. “I figure he probably has more important things to do than wait around for me, being a General and all. But he never said how long he’d wait here, so maybe he comes for a few minutes and then goes off to do those more important things. Maybe he has everyone meet him here when they want to join. Like it’s his comfort zone or something. Or his hunting ground? Does that make him sound like a serial killer?”
Was he a serial killer? It was a magical war, wasn’t it? So a lot of people probably died.
Good thing Misha was used to hearing about people dying. |
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Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2021 7:35 pm
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Kamacite wasn’t sure about this. He didn’t want Misha getting in over his head, and he didn’t want him to get hurt, even if he knew Misha could handle himself. Probably better than Kamacite could as a civilian.
“He’s there,” Kamacite said quietly as they approached, his arms tucked into the sleeves of his robe. “I can feel a General’s aura.”
Kamacite could have hopped the fence, but he didn’t want his hair or robes to get caught, so once Misha was clear, he simply teleported to the other side. Much less embarrassing than trying to get his hair unstuck.
“If you change your mind, just say so and I can get us out of here,” Kamacite said, his voice still low as they approached the meeting place. He didn’t want to tell Misha that it absolutely made Jet sound like a serial killer.
Jet was in the park, but he wasn’t just standing around doing nothing. He had a notebook with him, with lines for music scores. The approach of a Corrupted Senshi had him packing up his music, depositing it into his subspace pocket as they approached. He recognized the Senshi, but couldn’t place a name to the face. He didn’t exactly associate with many Corrupted Senshi outside of his own recruits.
He looked curiously at the Senshi, and then over at the civilian he’d met a couple months back, surprised to see him there.
“So you made up your mind?” Jet asked, although it seemed pretty clear that the young man had. He looked at the Corrupted Senshi again, giving him a small nod. “Your escort? General Jet,” he introduced, in case the other didn’t know him. He didn’t normally bother with his title, but in front of a civilian he thought it was at least a little important.
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Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 9:33 am
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“I won’t change my mind,” Misha said.
He might often seem like he was on the verge of getting himself in over his head, but at least half of it was an act. Misha knew what he was doing, he just chose to approach things with a cheerful attitude. Sometimes it threw people off. Sometimes it calmed people down. Usually it meant no one really knew what he was thinking, and others tended to underestimate him as a result.
Either way, it tended to work in his favor.
“My friend, actually,” Misha answered Jet’s question about Kamacite’s presence.
He smiled the way he always did, bright and cheerful, though he knew this was a very serious situation. He was serious about it, he just didn’t see the need to be stern or somber.
“And I did,” he continued, standing several feet away from Jet, close enough that they could talk without having to raise their voices too loud, but with enough space between them to hopefully put Kamacite at ease.
“I could be an asset to you,” Misha added, though it didn’t seem as if he had to promote himself too much. “I have a dedicated following and can put in a good word for the Negaverse. Plus I have family connections that might be beneficial. I know a thing or two about secretive organizations and some of the dangers that might be involved with warring factions. The magic and the youma might be new, but I figure people are roughly the same, whether they’ve got magic and youma or not. I doubt anything about the Negaverse would surprise me.”
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Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 1:06 pm
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Kamacite watched the General with caution. While they were basically the same rank, officers of the Negaverse tended to have different privileges than Senshi. And for that, a lot of them still looked down on Senshi, even though others, like Kamacite, had devoted themselves to the Negaverse.
Misha’s cheerful attitude was something that put him both at ease and worried him. He knew his friend was intelligent and probably had a good idea about what the Negaverse could be capable of, if compared to his own family’s connections, but it was always different than one would expect. There weren’t literal monsters in the mafia, at least none that weren’t already connected to the Negaverse.
“Kamacite,” he greeted the General with his own introduction, but didn’t find it necessary to say more than that. He was just there to make sure nothing happened to Misha.
Friend, escort, it didn’t matter to Jet. He was just pleased that this young man seemed to decide that the Negaverse was worth a shot. Not that he could exactly quit once he joined, but if he had a Corrupted Senshi friend, then maybe he would be a good asset, as he said.
“Alright. I can give you power, but it’s going to hurt at first,” he warned, not wanting there to be any surprises. “Once you’re an officer, I’ll take you to Negaspace to show you around. Your… friend can join too if he wants,” Jet paused to look over at Kamacite. It didn’t look like the Senshi was going to be wandering off any time soon.
“I’m going to put my hand inside your chest. I need to access your starseed to give you power,” he explained, but waited until the young man let him know it was okay before stepping forward.
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Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 1:19 pm
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Whether or not there were monsters in the mafia depended on which definition of “monster” someone decided to go with. Misha tended to think humans could be just as monstrous as any creature out there, if not more so, considering humans had the capacity for critical thought.
Briefly, Misha wondered if joining the Negaverse made him any better or worse than his parents.
Maybe the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, after all.
Oh, well. He’d already made his decision and he had no intention of backing out. If he regretted it later, he’d only have himself to blame.
“I’m ready,” he said, and stepped closer on his own instead of waiting for Jet.
The thought of pain didn’t scare him. He was at least moderately familiar with it. His parents would make the claim that he should be able to withstand violence in case he was ever targeted, but the truth was probably that they were assholes and liked to make excuses for their own shitty behavior.
Misha might be a pleasant and lively person, but he liked to be realistic about these things.
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Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 2:22 pm
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Since the young man appeared to be ready for the pain that came with taking on a good amount of chaos, Jet reached out when he stepped forward and sunk his hand into his chest. He was well aware, and didn’t care, that he had an audience. He’d already decided a couple months ago that he wanted to recruit this civilian into the Negaverse when he met him in that alley looking for monsters.
His hand gripped around his starseed and started to push the chaos into it —
But as too many times before, there was something blocking him. The starseed itself was preventing him from completing the change into an officer.
Jet growled and withdrew his hand, but left the starseed in his chest.
“Did you know about this?” he hissed at Kamacite as he flexed his fingers as though maybe that was the issue.
Kamacite frowned in concern when the chaos Jet was pushing into Misha’s chest didn’t do anything. Jet had a similar reaction as his own General when he was unable to corrupt him.
“He’s a Senshi,” Kamacite surmised, but shook his head when accused of knowing anything about it. Instead he stepped forward to protectively place his hands on Misha’s shoulders. “A General Sovereign is needed to change him,” he said out loud, although he was sure Jet already knew this. Kamacite was too busy looking Misha over to care. He wanted to make sure he was okay and not in too much pain.
“I can take him to one, then,” he offered.
”No,” Jet growled again, taking hold of one of the young man’s arms so Kamacite couldn’t just disappear with him. “I take responsibility for him. I’ll give him power even if I need some help to do it.”
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Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 3:47 pm
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Kamacite felt the hair on the back of his neck rise when Jet grabbed hold of Misha’s arm, and his own grip became more protective as he shielded Misha’s chest with the long sleeve of his robe, arm reaching across Misha’s shoulders to pull him back if necessary.
“General Jet doesn’t have the power required to change you. That could only mean one thing,” Kamacite explained as gently as he could while still staring the General down with warning glare to not try anything. “Your starseed is that of an unawakened Senshi, just like mine was. It’s rare, but… it’s not impossible.”
Clearly, since he’d been awakened. It was unfortunate though, because he wanted to get Misha acquainted to the Negaverse a little at a time, and now it looked like they would have to throw him into it.
Jet glowered at the way Kamacite grabbed onto the young man, as if that could stop him from being corrupted. He was determined to change him one way or another. And if that meant needing a General Sovereign… well… this was not the first time and he doubted it would be the last time.
“General King Axinite will be able to lend me enough power. All of my recruits have turned out to be Senshi,” Jet admitted, and then finally released the civilian’s arm. He didn’t actually want to scare him off or make him change his mind. He was just frustrated that once again the person he wanted to recruit ended up being a Senshi.
“They’re all still alive and prospering,” Jet frowned again at Kamacite when it didn’t look like he was convinced. “And they all joined on their own. I didn’t make them, if that’s what you’re thinking.” Well, except for Rigel, but he was doing better than a lot of the others at this point, and didn’t seem to resent Jet for recruiting him.
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Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 4:04 pm
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Misha didn’t really understand what was going on.
He was a Senshi, but he wasn’t, because he hadn’t “awakened,” but he was awake. This definitely was not a dream. Misha had made the decision. He’d told Yuuri. Yuuri had offered to come with him. (Well… he’d demanded, as much as Yuuri would ever demand anything, probably.) They came here and found Jet, and now…
Now he was still awake — a little winded and a lot confused.
Misha continued to look from Kamacite to Jet and back again.
“What’s a General King? How come you can corrupt normal people but not Senshi?” he asked. “If they’re rare, exactly how many do you have?”
Did Jet have a talent for finding “unawakened Senshi” or something? He seemed pretty annoyed about the whole thing, which Misha thought was a little unfair. It wasn’t like he came into this knowing he had a weird starseed. If he did, he would have just had Kamacite bring him directly to whoever he needed to be brought to.
Even still, Misha managed to smile weakly.
“So… what now? Do we just call this Axinite person like he’s Bloody Mary or something and he creeps out of the shadows all weird and terrifying?”
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Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 7:16 pm
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He knew that Misha dealt with plenty of overprotectiveness from his brother, but when it was the Negaverse Kamacite couldn’t help himself but want to protect him too. He was being pulled into a world he knew nothing about, and Kamacite wished he would have known a little more about it before he’d been corrupted.
“A General King or Queen ranks above General,” Kamacite explained, still holding onto Misha’s shoulders as he caught his breath. “Generals don’t have enough power to awaken a senshi, but General Kings and Queens do. Something about our starseeds need a little extra boost to awaken.”
“No, I’ll have to take you to him,” Jet said but paused after he got a glare from Kamacite. He drew in a breath through his nose, trying to keep himself from getting even more frustrated than he was. If Aquamarine was there, he would have probably told Jet to just take the starseed and be done with it. But Aquamarine wasn’t there.
“We would take you to see him,” he amended with a frown of his own. “For my recruits…? You would make six,” Jet said and crossed his arms over his chest as he waited to see if the senshi would allow them to go to Negaspace or not.
It figured that this one would be a senshi too. It was probably fate trying to torment him just one more time.
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Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 7:25 pm
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Misha listened, and what he heard made sense to a degree, but he still had trouble processing the information. Probably because he was still recovering from having a hand in his chest. Aside from being painful, it’d also been weird.
How did it work anyway? His chest was nothing to write home about, narrow and not very defined, but there was still a solid barrier of pale skin, (admittedly) minimal muscle, and bone. How did one even begin to stick their hand in there?
Magic, most likely. That always seemed to be the answer to everything now.
“Okay,” he said, because at this point there wasn’t anything for him to do but agree.
He would harass Kamacite for more specifics later, when he was Yuuri instead of Kamacite and they were back home, safe and comfortable in Misha’s room.
Well, his and Yuuri’s room now, actually.
Misha took a breath and steadied himself, able to stand on his own again, though he didn’t push Kamacite off of him. He was used to protectiveness thanks to his brother being a little obsessive about it. It was sort of sweet that Kamacite felt that way, too.
Only maybe not as obsessive.
“Alright, General. Lead the way.”
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